It’s a celebration bitches! Thursday marked the 3rd Blackhawks parade that made its way through downtown Chicago to a final destination. Let’s review.
Back in 2010 & 2013, the parade started just west of Downtown, and proceeded down Washington; I was there for both. Only 2 blocks away, I made the easy walk and dealt with the madness to get a glimpse of our heroes. The first one ended up at Wacker and Michigan, where the rally began. As the parade passed us, we got in the street and followed it as far as we could… right to the backdoor of the stage. Didn’t stay for the rally, made our way back to work; may have made a stop at a local watering hole; can’t remember, that was 5 years ago. 2013 was the same route, except this time it ended in Grant Park. Way more people could be accommodated there. This thing was growing out of control as Blackhawk fever swept the city. That brings us to this year.
With Washington under construction, the parade was scheduled to come right down Monroe. When I heard the news I couldn’t be happier; this is the street that I work on! This was going to be sweet. This year, my wife and son made it downtown to enjoy the festivities, and with my brother in the house too, since we work together, it definitely felt like a family affair. Being up on the 8th floor gave us a great view of the crowd downstairs, but we were a little too far up to get a close up view of the important passer-bys. We watched in the conference room as the buses were loaded at the United Center, approximately 2 miles away. As they got full, we headed down into the crowd.
The crowd, full of suburban teenagers both drunk and high, was not exactly my speed at this age, especially with my wife and son. If we were talking about the Bulls rallies back in the day, we’d have a different story to tell. So, we made our way back into the building, and up to the vacated 2nd floor. Perfect! Right at the windows, looking slightly down, we were able to see it all; a beautiful birds eye view. This is what I’m talking about. And here they came….
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The open double deck buses had all the players, the old Hawks, the announcers, and the brass. All the hardware was present, including the MVP trophy, the Western Conference Cup, and of course, Mr. Stanley. The buses seemed to go a little slower than last year, although it would have been better if they went approximately 5 MPH, instead of 15. Steve Konroyd actually saw us in the window and waved; not many more of them looked up there. The attention was focused on the crowd below. The parade had passed, we cheered on our heroes, and the rally was set to begin.
This year, Soldier Field was the venue. Definitely a downgrade over last year, as far as the number of people in attendance.. because the capacity of Soldier Field is only about 70K. Still, it was nice. I liked when Q referenced the Winter Classic between the Pens and Hawks that was played there, and how we didn’t think that scene in Soldier Field could be trumped; it was. It was trumped as the highlight reel of the 2015 playoffs was played, and then the player announcements. The guys seemed pretty beat; I guess that’s what 3 straight nights of partying will do to you. They still have the weekend to get through. Toews was hoarse, Keith too; Crawford may have still been intoxicated as he dropped another F bomb to begin his moment at the mic. I’m sure the Blackhawks front office loves that one.
It was a nice celebration. There were a ton of people downtown lining the streets, and more people that made their way to Soldier Field. I joked with my buddy in LA… there were a little bit more than the 500 people at the Kings rally last year. Like 2 milllion more… but that’s how we do. That’s how we treat our heroes… a parade of champions. It doesn’t get better than this… or does it?
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